The 1966 spaghetti western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is a movie about an outlaw who teams up with a wandering stranger, played by Clint Eastwood, to scam the law for bounty money. Eventually, they turn on each other only to unite again to find the buried money of a Civil War soldier.

This was one of the first movies I remember seeing with my dad. Something about the good working with the bad all while the ugly tracked them through the desert mesmerized me.

My dad and I loved watching movies together as I grew up. Some of my best memories are spending hours with him, watching movies from classic Westerns to comedies. When I was really young I was a total Momma’s boy. My dad would always joke, “I guess he likes you more,” and try to pass it off with a laugh, but my mother knew it bothered him.

But one day my dad came home with a plastic case holding the greatest video game ever made, “Lego Star Wars” for the original Xbox. We spent hours playing together and as we collected every coin in the game, we grew closer and closer.

Now, a 2006 video game isn’t the only reason I love my father. Throughout the years he has taught me so much. He’s taught me to keep a cool head while others panic, to always be kind to others despite their circumstances and to always do the right thing no matter how tempting the alternative. I could fill a book with the lessons I’ve learned from that man, but by far the most important is perseverance.

When my dad came to Texas for a job that was promised to him, he instead found himself without a job, battling a lawsuit with two kids and a third on the way. A lesser man would have cracked under the pressure.

“I will beat this or I will die trying,” Brian Minton said.

He would work himself to the bone before he let his family down, so he fought back. Now he’s a respected doctor with a base of loyal patients who trust my dad with their lives.

Over the years me and my dad have grown closer and our communication has improved. Watching “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” now with my father reminds me of our relationship as father and son.

I think that’s why I love that movie so much. My upbringing was the combination of a lot of good with a little bad, all being chased by an ugly truth. But in the end instead of having a Mexican standoff in the cemetery over who gets the gold, you find me. A boy who hopes that one day he can live up to his father’s example and carry on the lessons he taught him.

I love you, Dad.